The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Having Trouble Sleeping? Scripture is Ambien for the Soul

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Jeff Kaven Show, episode 121, Ambien for the Soul. Having trouble sleeping? Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. Hey, welcome, my friend.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Thanks for joining me again this week, where we can get together and talk about. all things discipleship and scripture and go deeper in our walk with the Lord. Always look forward to it. Always appreciate your interaction, your email, you're texting. Some of the messages that I've been receiving on Instagram, love it, appreciate it, and I do really, really enjoy my time with you. Little tired right now, I'm still dealing with a little bit of jet leg. I've been over in Israel for nine days and taping with Marcholino di Ambrosio. A new series. Oh, it's just great. A new series about the Lord. And we had just an epic time as far as production and the television crew that was accompanying us over there. Wow. And it was hot. I got to tell you, I don't think there was a day below 100 in Muggy. And you do video and you're teaching from seven in the morning till seven at night. Wow. It takes a lot out of you. So I slept well on the way home on the airplane. But a little, dealing with a little bit of jet legs. So, hey, why not talk about sleep, right? Let's talk about

Starting point is 00:01:34 sleep a little bit, something that we all need and something that we all struggle with from time to time. If you're like me, you've had those nights where something happened in your life. You know, you did something or somebody said something about you or there was a rumor or financial trouble, trouble with the kids, whatever it is. And your your night is just robbed. You can't sleep. And I think that that happens now and again, you know, because, hey, this is life. And sleep is indicative of a calm soul, a soul that is at rest. And if you sleep well, it typically means that things are going fairly well. But there are those times where your sleep is robbed right there in the middle of the night. And we're going to talk about that.

Starting point is 00:02:26 I know that some people just have a hard time getting to sleep in general, and there's others, you might be one of them, I certainly am not, where they can sleep anywhere. I mean, anywhere, anytime they just put their head down, boom, they're gone. I am not one of those people. In fact, I think that my temperamental makeup is such that I lay down and I begin to think about a lot of different things. And sometimes that's a problem because I should have dealt with those during the day and given them to the Lord, but I didn't. I kept them to myself. I'll work this out when I lay

Starting point is 00:03:00 down. And before you know it, you go to bed at 10 o'clock, and before you know it, it's 1.30 in the morning. And that could be a really lonely time, because you know the only one up is God, right? And CNN and Fox. I mean, everybody else is asleep, and you're like, man, this is not fair. How come I have to stay up all night and wrestle with these things? So anyway, that's what we're going to talk about. I am looking out right now over the beautiful lake up here deep in the woods of Minnesota. And it's always, it's always great to be here and to see the wildlife right out the window. And I just enjoy so much the deep woods of Minnesota. If you ever come here, I'll take you out and show you if we have time. Hey, I've got some email. A couple of them real

Starting point is 00:03:47 quick. Nicole writes me and she says, I'm from Singapore and currently living in Tasmania. And that's in Australia, studying to become a doctor. Hello, Nicole, thanks for your email. She says, in my growing years, I have had the privilege of going through both your eight-week and 24-week great adventure through the Bible and your wisdom series. I recently stumbled upon your podcast, and it has really been a wonderful source of life. Unfortunately, the medical profession is rather anti-faith, and a lot of my friends are like this, too. I do have wonderful missionaries who have brought me such joy, but your podcast has been such a blessing as I begin my day and arm myself before I enter the war zone of the hospital. So she says, thank you so much for the podcast,

Starting point is 00:04:39 the Bible studies, and so forth. Well, thank you, Nicole, and I appreciate you listening to the show, and I'll remember you in my prayers today and your work as a doctor, and I know that can be difficult, particularly when you're dealing with the whole pro-life issue and what people talk about at hospitals. It can become discouraging. Hang in there. God has you there for a reason, Nicole. He really, really does. Amy writes and says, I have done several of your Bible studies and have learned more from them than anything else in my life. Well, that's impressive, I guess. She says, she went on a pilgrimage with me. Oh, I know. I remember that. Absolutely. Karen, I remember with Karen. Karen did. And told me about, just her friend Karen told her about

Starting point is 00:05:23 the podcast, that's right. And I started listening and love them. Thank you for teaching about our beautiful faith in a joyful and understandable way. You got it, Amy, and it's a privilege for me to do this. You mentioned both Amy and Nicole mentioned the Bible studies, and I have to tell you that the Great Adventure Bible is on Amazon now, and I just got a message earlier today that it's number one in Catholic Bibles on Amazon. That's the Great Adventure Bible, and it is number one, one of all Bibles in the world sold right now. Isn't that cool? It's a Catholic Bible on Amazon, the Great Adventure Bible. I love it. Tell your friends about it. Put it on Instagram, put it on Twitter, put it on Facebook, Snapchat, whatever you need to do. Go up on the roof and

Starting point is 00:06:11 yell. But get the word out there about this Great Adventure Bible. It really is a magnificent tool in the hands of a disciple of the Lord. Okay, onto sleepiness. Insomnia. Insomnia is the kind of thing that, well, it kind of keeps you up at night, just even thinking about it, right? The frustration of insomnia. Now, I'm very aware that as you go into the store and you go into the pain killer section, you know, you get Advil and Tylenol and, you know, all of them, that it used to be that you just get Advil, you just get aspirin, whatever, a leave. I don't want to leave anyone out. But now they have a whole section called like Advil PM, Tylenolp. It's all PM, meaning it's going to help you get to sleep. And of course, prescriptions of

Starting point is 00:07:00 Ambien and other types, other drugs of that type, are going through the roof. And the reason is, is because people are finding it hard to sleep, more than ever probably. And that's due to a lot of, a lot of situations, a lot of points, for example, social media, television, and so forth, just overstimulated. But our teenagers are also faced with so many difficulties and so many challenges that they find it hard to sleep, especially when their phone is on all throughout the night. So I call this show Ambien for the Soul, and I'm very aware that your soul needs more than simply an Ambien, but you know what I'm talking about here. Help for your soul, sleep for your soul, and when you have trouble sleeping. I want to start off with the scripture,

Starting point is 00:07:46 and by the way, these are all going to be in the show notes, so you don't have to worry about that. You'll get them. If you don't get show notes, just give me an email, and in the subject line, put show notes, and we'll get you on the list. My email address is The Jeffcaven Show at ascensionpress.com. The Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com. Listen to what Daniel says. Daniel chapter 2 in verse 1 says, in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, that was the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. That is really a great verse, just sort of as an overarching verse about experiencing trouble in your spirit, an uneasiness, an unsettledness, an anxious spirit.

Starting point is 00:08:34 your sleep will leave you. That's really what happens. Now, when I was preparing for this, I was studying, and I noticed something interesting, that there's scriptures that support the fact that God never sleeps, but there's also a scripture that talks about explicitly God's sleeping. This is interesting. Psalm 121 in verse 3 says, He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. God's not going to sleep on the job, right? He's not, you know, you're hoping for him to protect you and watch out for you and provide for you. And sometimes you want to say, God, he is sleeping? No, he doesn't sleep. He's not sleeping. But on the other hand, in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 8, Jesus is in a boat.

Starting point is 00:09:25 And there is a lot of difficulties. There is a lot of trouble all around. and here we find God sleeping. It says when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. So it kind of gives us an example

Starting point is 00:09:47 that even in the midst of the storm, Jesus could sleep. Wouldn't that be nice to be able to do that? Of course, we like storms outside, and some of us say, well, I sleep better when there's lightning and thunder going on out there. So there is a couple of other scriptures, before we get into some of the causes of sleeplessness from Scripture, I like Proverbs 6.9, and these are just verses I throw in because they're good to meditate

Starting point is 00:10:11 on, and they really do have something to say about this topic. On this occasion, it talks about how too much sleep can lead to poverty. How long will you lie there, O Sluggard? I'm not talking to you. I'm reading Scripture. How long will you lie there, O Sluggard? When will you lie there, O Sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond and want like an armed man. So too much sleep, you know, you're going to become a vagabond. You know, another interesting thing about that verse, and I noticed this years ago, is that I do know that the pious position to pray is with your hands folded. I know that. But it's interesting that the only time that it really mentions that in

Starting point is 00:10:58 the Bible, it talks about it in relationship to what? Poverty. To poverty. Anyway, go ahead. Keep folding your hands when you pray. It's fine. Proverbs 20 in verse 13, love not sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread. In other words, that's a cautionary tale there for those who just lay down and sleep and, you know, they're bumming around all the time and they expect to be fed. No, open your eyes. In other words, get to work, right? Now, what are some of the causes of sleeplessness in our lives? And some of these are going to be obvious, but they need to be said. And you might be experiencing it. And this show today might be for the sake of just helping you. Or if you know of somebody that you can pass the show onto, this might be

Starting point is 00:11:49 the information they need right now, right? So number one, worry. Worry keeps us up at night. It really does. Psalm 127 and verse 2 says, it is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. You know, we worry about a lot of things, right? Worry is where you pay for what could possibly happen tomorrow, but you pay today. So, you know, I said to someone one time, I have had two heart attacks. I have had colon cancer. I have had a brain tumor. I have had, what else did I have?

Starting point is 00:12:35 Oh, I had pancreatic cancer. All of these, of course, actually never happened, but I felt like I had them. And I worried, right? I didn't have all those. I'm kind of making that up. But I think you get what I'm saying is that worry is paying today for what might happen tomorrow. And that's a terrible way to live, isn't it? And you can do that by worrying about not just your health, which I know a lot of us do, but you can worry about your money, right? Oh, no, what if this happens?

Starting point is 00:13:07 What if that scenario takes place? I'm going to be broke. I'm going to be without a home. I'm going to be on the street. I'm going to get mugged then. I'm going to die. And so when we start worrying about money, if we go all the way to the end, what we're really worrying about is, oh, my, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. No, you're not. You're not going to die. And so we're going to learn some things here today, why we don't have to worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough problems of its own, Jesus said. You need to worry about today in the sense of praying and giving everything over to the Lord, not actively worrying. Let me straighten that out.

Starting point is 00:13:40 So we worry about money. We worry about relationships. Does she like me? Does he like me? Is he going out with another girl for prom? You know, those types of things. or why am I not a part of the group? How come I didn't get invited to that event or that birthday party or whatever it might be? Or we worry about hurts, things that have been said,

Starting point is 00:14:04 things that we probably misunderstood, but we're up at night, you know, thinking all about it. Or you said something in a text to somebody and now you're worried that maybe they're going to take it wrong and so you're going to stay up all night and you're going to worry about that. And so worry becomes a real robber of the sleep in our life. So you've got to watch out for that. And there's an anecdote, or there's some remedies, I should say, to worrying. And I'm going to get to those in just a little bit. Number two is anxiety. Anxiety, we struggle with anxiety. It's a general feeling of doom. We become incredibly anxious. One person described anxiety as going in every direction at once with no sense of where you really want to go. and it's like, oh, man, I just feel this overwhelming sense of doom and helplessness, a dread comes over your future, right? The email you read, the text message, it becomes a source of anxiety. We'll look at an answer for that. Anxiety can keep you up at night. And, you know, I've had a few nights in my life, to be honest with you, where I experienced anxiety in the

Starting point is 00:15:18 middle of the night. And I would rather experience anxiety in the middle of the day with the sun out than in the middle of the night. And no one there to tell me it's going to be okay. I remember sending an email to a friend a while ago. And right when I sent, actually it was a text, I sent a text to them at 10 o'clock at night. And the moment my hand hit that button and released the send, I felt like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. because what I was talking about was some things that's things that were difficult that really needed to be addressed in the future. And here I am suddenly putting it on my friend's plate at 10 o'clock at night. It was like sending through a text a large coffee with two shots

Starting point is 00:16:06 of espresso in it to him. It's off my plate, but man, now it's on his plate, and it's probably going to keep him up at night. I should not have done that. That's something that we have to be careful of as stewards of the treasures that God has given us and the relationships, don't lay stuff down on people at night that really belongs in the daytime as far as figuring it out. I remember one time my dad, who is working in corporate America at a big, big, big tech company. And I remember him saying to me, I never make serious big decisions after seven o'clock at night. And I was probably too young to understand why he was telling me that, but I get it now. you do big decisions don't need to be made at night before you go to bed and you need sleep and you

Starting point is 00:16:52 shouldn't be wrestling with those things right before you go to sleep uh the third one and perhaps these are not in any order by the way the third one could be the biggest one and that is one of the biggest causes of insomnia is sin that's right sin sin is where you have weakened your relationship with god with venial sin or you have broken your relationship with god with mortal sin and when you sin, you are in disharmony. Pope John Paul II talks about this in one of his writings on reconciliation, and he talks about how sin is spiritual suicide, and it really shakes the equilibrium in your life. That inner compass in your life is shaky now, and so sin can really, really mess you up,

Starting point is 00:17:44 and it will rob your sleep. I mean, I promise, it will rob your sleep. I got a solution for that, too. Psalm 36-4, he plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. And another good one, Proverbs 4 verses 14 through 16, do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on, for they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. Wow. So, you know, those are the first three.

Starting point is 00:18:24 You got worry and you got anxiety and you've got sin. And when you put those together, when you've got worry meets anxiety, anxiety and worry meets sin, you have terror at night. Terror at night. Another thing that robs us of our sleep is actually a very natural problem, and that is people who drink at night. You say, well, I can handle that. In fact, I have a glass of wine, and it helps me get to sleep. Well, yay. But a lot of people will drink excessively at night, and then that turns to sugar, and it wakes them up at one in the morning, two in the morning. They can't get back to

Starting point is 00:19:02 to sleep. So drinking is a bad habit. If you're really looking for sound sleep, or if you're struggling with sleep, don't drink. And that's just something I don't, you know, want to do like on a long flight. I would stay away from that because that's going to mess up your sleep on a long flight overseas. Diet can affect your sleep. That's right. Caffeine can affect your sleep and a full stomach can affect your sleep. So not only drink and diet, but TV can affect your sleep. Studies have shown that if you are sitting there staring at that cathode ray tube, or you're staring at your iPad or your computer, your laptop, that it messes with your brain in such a way that it's hard to get into REM sleep. It's hard. And so it's very much suggested

Starting point is 00:19:53 by professionals that before you go to bed, like an hour before you go to bed, don't watch any more TV because it's going to rob you in some ways of sleep. So kind of watch out, watch out for that. So then the fifth one is social media. This is a biggie, isn't it? Social media. What do we mean by this? Well, we're talking about Twitter. We're talking about Instagram, people just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, and they scroll through 200 different entries on Instagram. And in the process there, there's 10 of them that made them mad. There's 10 that made them envious of someone else's fortune. There are others that are inappropriate. And here, you're just dumping this stuff into your before you go to sleep, get a life, right? Seriously, this is not the time to start dumping all of that

Starting point is 00:20:46 into your head. And inevitably, you're going to run into that one post that just really, really ticks you off, right? The word tick is Greek for gets you mad. But the social media can really can mess you up right before you go to bed. Stop reading your email. You know, my wife will say this to me. Sometimes I'll have my laptop and I have it on my lap. So I'll they call it a laptop. And I'll be looking on there through the email and she'll look at me. She's a little bit peeved. And she says, what are you doing? And I'm just checking on one thing. She says, Jeff, don't do that. Not at night. Don't do that. You know that some things might get you. She said, I say, you're right. You're right. And I just have to turn it off. I got a really smart

Starting point is 00:21:26 wife. So there's five things that will rob you of your sleep, you know. You've got worry, you got anxiety. You've got sin. Drink, diet, TV, social media. All of these things can rob you. We're going to take a break. When I come back, I want to give you some solutions that are good solutions from the Bible, but you've got to do them. If you want that sweet sleep, you've got to do them. And sometimes we are hearers of the word, but not doers. And what happens when we do that? We deceive ourselves. We think, well, I've got the solution. I listened to the podcast, and I got really some good scriptures on how to tackle this insomnia. Got some really good spiritual ambient for my soul, but we don't do it. we're going to do that. We're going to do it. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ chose corrupt, broken, imperfect, sinful men to be the foundation of his church. And because these broken and perfect men chose to remain in relationship with Jesus, they became saints. And they were used by Jesus to transform hearts and minds. 2,000 years later,

Starting point is 00:22:39 I invite you to check out my book, Broken and Blessed, where you'll find practical tools to overcome habitual sin, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to walk with an imperfect church toward a perfect God

Starting point is 00:22:54 who is calling all of us to perfection over time. To order the paperback book or audiobook, Broken and Blessed, visit ascensionpress.com or Amazon. Welcome back. We're going to do it, right?

Starting point is 00:23:13 We're going to look at some solutions for insomnia. This episode is called Ambien for the Soul, having trouble sleeping. Well, we gave some reasons why people have trouble sleeping right before the break. We have worry, anxiety, and sin. We've got TV, diet, drinking, and we've got television, social media, all of that. Well, number one, if you want to start to have a sweeter night of sleep. A beautiful, restful night of sleep. A restful night where you get deep into REM. And when you do that, by the way, oh, I heard this amazing talk on sleep the other day.

Starting point is 00:23:51 Let me just throw this in before I give you the first one. And in that talk is one of these TED talks. And no, I did not watch it right before I went to bed. No, I did not. I watched it in the morning. but they were talking in there about how, you know, throughout the day, you take in so much information, you're reading, you're watching TV, you're at work, you're in meetings and all this, and the next day, if you don't get sleep, the next day, it's very difficult to remember what you read and what you learned students, but he was saying that what they're finding out now in sleep clinics is that if you get a good night's sleep, it's like hitting the save button on your computer, but for your brain. So you hit the save button by how, by sleeping. And then you'll

Starting point is 00:24:38 have access to that data much easier for the test the next day. In fact, they're finding out that you need sleep before you learn and after you learn. But boy, we just don't pay attention to that in our culture. Okay, number one, seek first the kingdom. Seek first the kingdom. What am I talking about here? Talking about redirecting your heart to him rather than the problem, direct. your heart to Jesus, rather than the circumstances that you are in. Rather than focusing on, woe is me, I'm a worm, and I'm going to lose, I'm going to die. No, what do we do? We seek first the kingdom of God, which is the rule of the king in our lives. We redirect our hearts in the midst of not being able to sleep. And typically, you will get up at night when you can't sleep. You know

Starting point is 00:25:25 what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about. And you typically have the same, same pattern. we'll talk about that in a few minutes. Establish a new pattern when you can't sleep. Matthew 6 says, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his lifespan. We can't, can we? And then he goes on and says, he says, for the Gentiles seek all these things. There's a bunch of other things, clothing and all

Starting point is 00:26:09 of this. They says, the Gentiles seek all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Here it is. Verse 33 of Matthew 6, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Don't be anxious. Seek first. The rule and the reign of Jesus Christ in your life. And notice it says in verse 33, but seek first. I looked at the Greek, I looked at the Greek, and here's what it says. Seek first. It doesn't have anything in the Greek original about seek the kingdom after you watch Anderson Cooper reruns. It doesn't say, seek first the kingdom after you watch Hannity. It doesn't. It doesn't say seek first the kingdom after you watch infomercials about how to make a million in real estate in the middle of the

Starting point is 00:27:08 night. Notice they targeted you in the middle of the night. Did you get that? That's when they run that stuff. Is they run it in the middle of the night because they know you can't sleep and they know you can't make money. You got problems. Well, they got real estate packages. just to sell you for five easy payments of $25 and one hard payment of $200. So don't do that. Proverbs 3 and verses 24 through 26 is beautiful. If you sit down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Do not be afraid of sudden panic or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. See, seek first. the kingdom of God. Do not be afraid of sudden panic. Don't do that. Your sleep will be sweet, sweet if you have your confidence in Christ. The second thing that I would recommend is the way of conquering anxiety, which is when you get up in the middle of the night, don't sit there and watch TV or go through pointless YouTube videos or Instagram. Seriously, don't do that. Pray. Pray. The way conquer anxiety is to pray, at least one way. Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7 says, and this is interesting

Starting point is 00:28:31 because verse 6 is going to tell us what to do. Verse 7 will tell us what we're going to get then if we do if we do verse 6. Verse 6 says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now here's what will happen then, if you do it. If you do what? If you don't be anxious, but in prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. Say to them on your knees in the middle of the night, God, I need this. God, I'm struggling with this. I give this to you. Here's what it says in verse 7. And the peace, that's shalom, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now let me ask you,

Starting point is 00:29:21 Could you use that at three in the morning? Well, I guess you could. I could. I could. So conquer anxiety, pray. Don't be anxious, but in everything, pray, give thanks in the middle of the night. The third one is to realize that we're often very, very afraid in our lives, but realize this. The Lord protects.

Starting point is 00:29:43 He protects us. And he is like a high tower that we can run into. His shadow will stand over us as a sign of his protection and his fatherly love. And so we need to abide in God's shadow, not the shadow of sleeplessness, but the shadow of his ever-loving presence. And I'll give you a psalm to read, and you might want to mark some of these in your Bible. So when you don't sleep that well, you've got something to go to when you wake up. maybe you can color code your Bible with verses for the middle of the night or write them down on a little card and put them at the front of your Bible. Here's what it says in Psalm 91. He who

Starting point is 00:30:26 dwells in the shelter of the most high, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, You will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night. There it is. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day. You see, the Lord protects you. You might want to read Psalm 91 when you can't sleep. Number four, realize this. The Lord sustains you. He does. He sustains you. Psalm 3-5 says, I lie down in sleep. I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. That means he supports me, buoys me up. He's, he is the foundation of my life. And the problems I'm dealing with right now, the Lord will sustain me in the middle of those. Psalm 4-8 in, by the way, again, if you're driving, do not write these down out there. They're in the show notes. Psalm 4-8, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep for thou alone, O Lord, makes me dwell in

Starting point is 00:31:43 safety. Isn't that beautiful? Number five, dealing with sleeplessness. We've got seven of them all together here. Number five, we'll go through them quick. An honest day's work. You say, what? I'm being truthful with you. In fact, it's even in the Bible. If one of the reasons that we don't sleep at night is that we don't work hard during the day. We're slouches. We goof off. We are at work goofing around on the internet. We don't put in a full day's work. We're worried if we're going to have a job next week or next month when they downsize and there's one you know some of the best jobs i've ever had were manual labor where at the end of the day i remember working at a nursery and i ball and burlap trees all day long that's dig them up and then and then you put uh burlap around them uh and then they take them out to you know businesses and plant them and so forth man at the end of the day i was so tired but it was so good and you you know what i'm talking about right i mean you you do the lawn work or whatever, I just have a tendency to sleep better at night with an honest day's work, whether

Starting point is 00:32:46 it's physical work or academic work, social work, whatever it might be, you're going to feel better. It says in Ecclesiastes 5 in verse 12, sweet is the sleep of a laborer. Amen. Let me say it again. Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep. Ah, that's something else. It's just so true. I mean, I'm just pausing here a second because I'm thinking, thank God for the word of God. Thank God for his word. Sweet is the sleep of a laborer. How are you doing at work? Are you working hard? Are you getting exercise? You getting that heart pumping? Those are ways that will better assure, at least, that you can get sweet sleep at night.

Starting point is 00:33:38 Number six, a clean conscience. This one is really, really big, really, really big. And big. I have a tour guide over in Israel. I go every January. I got a few places, by the way, open this coming January. If you're listening in the past, or you're listening in the future, that's 2020, January 2020. Go to my website. I've got January going to Israel. June, Father Mike Schmitz and I are going to Israel for a young adult trip. That's information's on there. Oh, yeah, we got a lot of cool stuff. But anyway, back to sleeplessness here. A clean conscience. One of my guides over there, I said to him, we need to, we're going to go. We're going to to confession, we need some time to check our conscience before we go to confession. And in examination

Starting point is 00:34:20 of our conscience, he said something very funny, and he meant it to be funny. He said, oh, he said, my conscience is clean. I never use it. Well, we need to use our conscience, but we need to check it, right? A clean conscience, go to confession. It might be the sleeping pill you're looking for. It probably is. That when you clear your heart of sin and you roll this over on the Lord, it is amazing. It is amazing the peace that comes to you. Now, if you haven't gone to confession in quite some time, do it. You might say, I don't even know what to say. I don't remember. I think it starts, the Father bless me for I have sinned. I can't remember after that. Maybe that's you. That's fine. You can Google it. There's lots of stuff on the website about how to go

Starting point is 00:35:06 to confession, or just go. And tell the priest, I can't remember how to do this. They love it, and they will walk you through it. I promise you. If they don't email me. No, I'm kidding. But a clean conscience. Go to confession. Go to confession. It can oftentimes clear up the problem that is going on in your life. Number seven, establish, this is really important, establish a healthy routine if you can't sleep. Now, we all typically do have a routine if we can't sleep. You walk downstairs. You get a glass of milk. You get some water. You see if there's a cookie, something. You mosey over to the couch. You plop down. You turn the TV on. Is there anything on? No. You know, my parents used to say nothing good happens after midnight. That's probably true with

Starting point is 00:36:02 TV, too. And then you go to your DVR. Well, did I tape anything? Well, you know, you're up for a reason. You're up for a reason. And the television is probably not going to give you the answer. So you're in this rut of how you deal with it. Break the rut. Come up with a healthy routine if you can't sleep. Cable News isn't going to help you. Tony Robbins isn't going to help you. And I'm going to help you in the middle of the night. It scripture says in Psalm 119 and verse 62, at midnight, I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules. So if you can't sleep, rise up and praise God and read scripture. sure. Come up with a healthier routine. Yeah, you can count sheep. It's better than endangered species, because you won't count very long there. But count sheep. But yeah, I need sheep. Say a rosary and pray

Starting point is 00:36:57 and read scripture. Let God minister to you in the middle of the night. Now, let's bring this home. Conclude this. I want to read one scripture to you, and I'm going to give you a scripture to read. The one I'm going to give you an assignment to this week is Psalm 23. Seriously, read it. It's really good for those who have insomnia. And by the way, some people have medical problems with their insomnia. Go to the doctor. Seriously, your sleep is that important in your life. Don't just try to, you know, go through it and you're the tough guy or you're the tough lady. No, go to the doctor and say, I'm having serious trouble. here. I don't know what's wrong. They do have sleep studies, and they might find something. You never know,

Starting point is 00:37:44 but I'm giving you the easy solutions here. The last scripture I want to give you is Matthew 1128. I love it. I'm just going to quote it to you. It says, come to me. This is Jesus talking, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Isn't that beautiful? Come to me. Come to me, all who toss and turn. and take my yoke upon you, my worldview, and you'll find rest. You'll find rest. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you right now. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift my friend up to you right now and I ask you to give them peace. I ask you, Lord, to give them courage, to do what is right, and to establish a healthy routine at night when they can't sleep, to check their conscience, to participate in an honest day's work, to give our lives over to you as the one who sustains. us, and the one who protects us. And we shall seek first the kingdom, Lord, and your righteousness.

Starting point is 00:38:48 And we know that all the things that we're anxious and worried about, they'll be added to us, these good things. Teach us, Lord, how to trust you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. My friend, go to Instagram. I'm over there, but don't do it at night. Sometimes I put some cool stuff there. Just got some pictures back from Israel. We stuck them on Instagram. If you want to see those, but know this. I love you, and I'm praying for you, and I do ask you to pray for me. God bless you. Have a great week.

The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Having Trouble Sleeping? Scripture is Ambien for the Soul

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